I’ve posted this same brief post for the past few years around this time, in hopes of drumming up a bit of discussion regarding this national holiday. About five years ago I was reading the paper in a small town in Minnesota. I read an article by Congressman Mark Kennedy entitled: “The Great Experiment” which discussed the sacrifices many soldiers had made to make this country what it is today.  I did not disagree with his article, I simply felt that he’d left some other important people and groups out. …

Diaz told him, “Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.”

Last week, I posted a guest blog from my friend Zach regarding the Tea Parties that happened across the country last Wednesday. Another friend, Jeff, wrote a response, and I wanted to make that available as a guest blog as well. As politics is something I consider myself an ever learning student on, I’m open to hearing, and posting, different viewpoints on this blog. So, here is Jeff’s response:
A Tea Party Explanation
Zach,
I appreciate the questions you have about the tea parties and the current unrest among fiscal conservatives about the …

Most people I talk to about pacifism and non-violence lack any knowledge of true stories of creative non-violence. We’ve seen literally hundreds of movies and tv shows of redemptive violence (good guy kills bad guy, everyone lives happily ever after) by the time we are adults, but we’ve seen little if any examples of nonviolence. We know it took a World War to stop the holocaust, but we know little more then the name Gandhi when it comes to nation-wide nonviolent movements.
I’m going to begin collecting and telling true …

My letter to the Editor was in the Wheaton Record today, the school paper at my alma mater. For those that didn’t read my previous drafts on the blog, I’ll post it one more time.
Mostly, I want to say hello and welcome to any students who got here via a Google search or link. Glad you stopped by. If your interested in joining our efforts to make diversity a central issue in the hiring of Wheaton’s next President, please leave a comment below or shoot me an email. Thanks!
Letter to …

(Here’s a Guest Post from my good friend, Zach. Originally published on his blog, so you’ll have to go there to comment and add your thoughts)
I honestly do not understand this Tea Party business going on around the country lately.
There seem to be a lot of Republicans get very excited about joining in on these Tea Parties, but I can’t figure out what exactly they are protesting.
The original Tea Party, the Boston Tea Party, was all about Taxation Without Representation. England was imposing a tea tax on the colonists in …

This is a final draft of my letter to the Editor for the Wheaton Record, the college paper at my alma mater. I’ve got to submit it today to get in the paper by Friday so I’m looking for any last minute feedback. Had to keep it to 300 words so I cut a fair bit out from last week. If you have any thoughts I’d love to hear them. This letter is mostly to spark interest in a larger collaborative open letter to the search committee, which will come …

I’m going to make this appeal extremely short and straightforward: Please don’t by chocolate this Easter (unless it’s certified Fair Trade). Here is why:

Nearly half of the worlds chocolate comes from Cote d’Ivoire in West Africa.
Thousands of children are forced to work on cocoa farms there (not family farms, forced labor: slavery)

This is different then the fair-trade vs. free-trade argument that comes up regarding coffee and some other commodities. This is a certified (meaning independent regulators, investigation etc) vs. unregulated (meaning enslaved children are likely harvesting the cocoa for …